Friday, July 29, 2005
Spitfire - North Killinghome. July 9.
On 15th September 1965, the late Jeffrey Quill flew the old Spitfire VB AB910 into RAF Station Coltishall to be handed over to the Royal Air Force Memorial Flight and preserved in perpetuity. Significantly, this was to be virtually the final moment of a thirty-year association and devotion by Jeffrey Quill to his beloved Spitfire. After Mutt Summers' initial flight, it was largely left to Jeffrey to help turn Reginald Mitchell's inspired design into the most famous fighter aircraft of all time.
Spitfire - July 12. Coningsby.
P7350 currently wears the livery of No 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron’s L1067 ‘XT-D’, as flown by the Squadron Commander, Squadron Leader ‘Uncle’ George Denholm during the Battle of Britain. On 30 August 1940, whilst operating from Hornchurch, L1067 was hit by return fire during a combat with Me110s, and ‘Uncle George’ was forced to bale out. The inscription ‘Blue Peter’ that XT-D wore under the cockpit referred to the name of a famous, Derby-winning, race horse, after which George Denholm chose to name his aircraft, not the BBC Children’s TV programme, which was yet to be invented!